I think it's actually more interesting that the dude from "America's next great debacle, er, restaurant" is in on the deal...he got royally shafted by that show IMO, so I hope LaVan Hawkins isn't doing another shady here.

my guess is that levan either owns the property (his sweet georgia brown used to be in the space - deep fried lobster tails - good god !?!) or he owes some serious back rent from when he occupied the space and convinced the owner that this would be a way of working off the debt (since nobody else can succeed in the spot despite reasonable foot traffic from the casino/greektown).